Methods for spatially relative apportionment of geospatial data in distributed computing systems, and related systems and apparatus

Abstract

A method and processing system for assessing of the health of a network of retail locations in a defined geographic area, by a process including the development of a greenfield benchmark score for a network of ideally sited locations, followed by the development of a brownfield score of current locations, for comparison to the greenfield score. The invention is further applicable to decisions to open a new location, relocate an existing location or close an existing location. In these cases, the effect of opening a new location, or relocating or closing an underperforming location is evaluated by recalculating the brownfield score after the addition of each of several potential new locations, and/or after relocating or closing each of several poorly performing locations.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 - 14 . (canceled) 
     
     
         15 . A method for apportionment of geospatial data, the method comprising:
 receiving, from a data storage device, a dataset comprising tile data corresponding to a geographical region, wherein the tile data corresponds to a respective sub-regions of the geographical region and tile attribute records, and wherein the tile data (i) uniquely identifies a respective tile and (ii) indicates respective sub-region attribute values of the sub-region corresponding to the respective tile;   receiving, from a data storage device, spatial relationship data, wherein the spatial relationship data (i) identifies a respective pair of tiles included in the tile data and (ii) indicates a spatial relationship between the respective pair of tiles;   spatially apportioning the tile data based at least in part on the spatial relationship data by one or more processors, wherein performing the spatially relative apportionment includes, for each tile T in the tile data and each spatial relationship R between tiles,
 identifying, based on the spatial relationship data, a subset of the tile data having the respective spatial relationship R to the respective tile T, 
 for each sub-region attribute, generating an aggregated attribute value for the respective attribute, 
 generating a record of spatially relative apportionment (i) identifying the respective tile T and the respective spatial relationship R and (ii) indicating the aggregated attribute values of the subset of tiles having the respective spatial relationship R to the respective tile T. 
   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the spatial relationship data is obtained prior to the performing of the spatially relative apportionment. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 generating a second set of tile attribute data; and   spatially apportioning, using one or more processors, the second set of tile attribute data set based on the spatial relationship data.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising assessing a quality of a set of physical locations of sites of a type of activity within a portion of the geographical region corresponding to a subset of the tiles. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein assessing the quality of the set of physical locations comprises:
 determining a greenfield benchmark score for the portion of the geographical region based on one or more potential locations of sites of the type of activity within the geographical region;   determining a brownfield score for the portion of the geographical region based on one or more current physical locations of sites of the type of activity within the geographical region; and   determining a quality score based on the brownfield score and the greenfield benchmark score.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein determining the quality score comprises determining a ratio of the brownfield score to the greenfield benchmark score. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising assessing an impact of adding a new site of the type of activity at a particular location within the portion of the geographical region, comprising:
 determining an updated brownfield score for the portion of the geographical region based on the one or more current physical locations of sites of the type of activity, the particular location of the new site.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising assessing an impact of terminating the type of activity at a particular one of the current physical locations of sites of the type of activity, comprising:
 determining an updated brownfield score for the portion of the geographical region based on (i) a set of physical locations consisting of the one or more current physical locations of sites of the type of activity other than the particular current physical.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising selecting the tiles from a larger set of tiles corresponding to the geographical region, comprising:
 selecting, from the larger set of tiles, one or more first tiles accessible via a street network, wherein each of the one or more first tiles intersects a street in the street network;   selecting, from the larger set of tiles, one or more second tiles adjacent to the street network, wherein each of the one or more second tiles borders at least one of the first tiles; and   including the one or more first tiles and the one or more second tiles in the plurality of tiles.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein selecting the tiles further comprises:
 selecting, from the larger set of tiles, one or more tiles proximate to a governmental boundary; and   including the one or more tiles proximate to the governmental boundary in the plurality of tiles.   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein receiving the spatial relationship data for the tiles further comprises generating the spatial relationship data. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein generating the spatial relationship data comprises:
 selecting pairs of tiles; and   for each selected pair of tiles, determining a spatial relationship between central features of the respective pair of tiles.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the central features of the pairs of tiles comprise centroids of the pairs of tiles. 
     
     
         28 . A system comprising:
 one or more processing devices and one or more storage devices storing instructions, the processing device being operable to execute the instructions to perform operations including:   receiving, from the data storage device, a dataset comprising tile data corresponding to a geographical region, wherein the tile data corresponds to respective sub-regions of the geographical region and tile attribute records, and wherein the tile data (i) uniquely identifies a respective tile and (ii) indicates respective sub-region attribute values of the sub-region corresponding to the respective tile;   receiving, from the data storage device, spatial relationship data, wherein the spatial relationship data (i) identifies a respective pair of tiles included in the tile data and (ii) indicates a spatial relationship between the respective pair of tiles;   spatially apportioning the tile data based at least in part on the spatial relationship data by the processing device, wherein performing the spatially relative apportionment includes, for each tile T in the tile data and each spatial relationship R between tiles,
 identifying, based on the spatial relationship data, a subset of the tile data having the respective spatial relationship R to the respective tile T, 
 for each sub-region attribute, generating an aggregated attribute value for the respective attribute, 
 generating a record of spatially relative apportionment (i) identifying the respective tile T and the respective spatial relationship R and (ii) indicating the aggregated attribute values of the subset of tiles having the respective spatial relationship R to the respective tile T. 
   
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the spatial relationship data is obtained prior to the performing of the spatially relative apportionment. 
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the operations further include:
 generating a second set of tile data for the of tiles; and   the one or more processing devices being configured to perform spatially relative apportionment of the second set of tile data based on the spatial relationship data.   
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the operations further include assessing a quality of a set of physical locations of sites of a type of activity within a portion of the geographical region corresponding to a subset of the tiles. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein assessing the quality of the set of physical locations comprises:
 identifying, within the spatially apportioned data, the records of spatially relative apportionment identifying the subset of tiles corresponding to the portion of the geographical region;   determining a greenfield benchmark score for the portion of the geographical region based on one or more potential locations of sites of the type of activity within the geographical region and the identified records of spatially relative apportionment;   determining a brownfield score for the portion of the geographical region based on one or more current physical locations of sites of the type of activity within the geographical region and the identified records of spatially relative apportionment; and   determining a quality score based on the brownfield score and the greenfield benchmark score.   
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein determining the quality score comprises determining a ratio of the brownfield score to the greenfield benchmark score. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein the operations further include assessing an impact of adding a new site of the type of activity at a particular location within the portion of the geographical region, comprising:
 determining an updated brownfield score for the portion of the geographical region based on the one or more current physical locations of sites of the type of activity, the particular location of the new site, and the identified records of spatially relative apportionment.   
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein the operations further include assessing an impact of terminating the type of activity at a particular one of the current physical locations of sites of the type of activity, comprising:
 determining an updated brownfield score for the portion of the geographical region based on (i) a set of physical locations consisting of the one or more current physical locations of sites of the type of activity other than the particular current physical location and (ii) the identified records of spatially relative apportionment.